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Bangladesh

country in South Asia

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ902
Source-derived summary

Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world with a population of almost 177.8 million people within an area of 148,461 square kilometres (57,321 sq mi). Bangladesh shares land borders with India to the north, west, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast. It has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal to its south and is separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor, and from China by the Indian states of West Bengal and Sikkim to its north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial, and cultural centre. Chittagong is the second-largest city and the busiest port of the country.

The territory of modern Bangladesh was ruled by successive Hindu and Buddhist dynasties in ancient history. Following the Muslim conquest in 1204, the region came under Sultanate and Mughal rule. As the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire, Bengal became a major commercial centre, known for its textile industry and agricultural output. The Battle of Plassey in 1757 began British colonial rule, which lasted nearly two centuries; colonial policies redirected wealth from Bengal to Britain, while the region itself suffered repeated deadly famines.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Bangladesh” as country in South Asia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1204, 1757—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1971-03-26. The account is most persuasive where Bangladesh, country and South can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as country in South Asia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q902. VIAF identifies the subject as 153614928. The Library of Congress control number is n81063207. Authority coordinates are 24.017, 89.867. 5 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1204 and 1757.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Bangladesh”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Bangladesh primary sources, Bangladesh archive and Bangladesh research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Bangladesh”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Bangladesh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.